“It’s really more of a pause than a defeat,” says William Caruso, a lawyer at Archer & Greiner PC and a member of New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform, who helped craft the state’s medical program. “It was the first time ever a bill on adult-use cannabis came within one or two votes in the Senate of becoming a law. The goal now is to figure out where they’re short. There’s a break now for the Legislature to work on the budget and legalization will be back on the agenda in May and June.”

The measure had support in the Assembly, but would have fallen a few votes short in the Senate.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY: “History is often a bumpy road of fits and starts and setbacks. But eventually, barriers do fall.”

The effort made history as the first time adult-use legislation nearly reached the floor of the State House, but legalization is taking much longer than the 100 days that Gov. Phil Murphy targeted when he took office in